we acknowledge the concerns raised by the gao regarding planning for the use of contractors. as a result, we have moved aggressively to remedy shortcomings by developing a drawdown plan. working with the combatant commanders in theater, we have established a process for identifying equipment access to requirements we can then re- tribute. -- read-distribute. >> you can read slower. i will give you more time. >>ñr in closing, amc is active police supporting the united states forces in iraq and central command and remain thoroughly engaged with all of our stakeholders to assure an efficient and effective drawdown of all forces from iraq. we maintain the highest standards of storage of while supporting the standards of our or fiber on the battlefield. i think the commission for highlighting our role in the drawdown and i look forward to your questions. >> we appreciate all your service to our country. thank you. >> members of the commission, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. as requested, i will highlight our initiatives in support of the contingency miss

it turned out that the gao -- when they, in fact, there was a protest the gao kind of saw it the way't want you to think that there was -- that there was of a, quote-unquote, that it was broken. the army felt a what it was doing and it had a -- people i very much respect thought they were doing the right thing. i can assure you that the process that we're now up presenting is full and open competition. >> but you made a judgment call that let the army proceed with it. >> well, we don't -- it's not a question of us allowing them to proceed. you know, we make a recommendation. we give them our view. but they're the executive agent. they need to make the -- >> so it's not binding on the army? >> no. but i will tell you that what has come out -- >> could you have told the army not to proceed? do you have that authority? >> not really. but i will tell you where we are -- >> let me interrupt here just for clarification. and i think the world of your organization. in terms of trying to provide some order. in this whole process and some direction. you provide the regulation, the interpretati

walker pioneered at the gao. i just wondered given the situation that states are in, does it really make sense to ask them to bail out the federal government? by raising their tax base basically. >> well, i think a value-added tax is a form of sales tax that if you're going to have a sales tax an value added tax it's self-enforcing so you have less problems with evasion. it would not be my choice. my choice would be scaled down programs. try to minimize the increase in taxes. at the end of the day, though, if you're going to have a european-size welfare state, you have to start taxing the way they tax. they tend to tax through high payroll taxes and things like value added taxes. you can't finance all these programs with just, you know, tweaking tax rates on people making over $250,000. so there is a question of, however -- whatever level of government we're going to have, we need to finance it as efficiently as we can. the question is whether people really are willing to swallow it. in my view, it will be the le

>> gao has looked at this issue over the years. and we believe that many of the current actions need to be ongoing. and there's also some structural changes that need to be made around definition. there are many challenges in terms of forcing these particular homeowners to mitigate the properties. and there's also a dialog that needs to take place between the program and local officials. and we believe this is an area where a common definition would be helpful in terms of defining what a significant event is and when the particular issue of a repetitive loss is triggered and what actions homeowners would have to take. we found examples where homeowners were able to ignore letters from fema. and the nfip involving losses on their property. and by not responding to an offer involving mitigation, they were able to avoid being forced to take any type of action. >> i see. thank you very much. ms. capito? >> thank you. i'd like to ask the administrator, in your comments and also in ms. brown's comments, you both said that the rates that

it turned out that the gao -- when they, in fact -- there was a protest, it turned out the gao kind of saw it the way we thought it might go. so i don't want you to think that there was -- there was a, quote-unquote, it was broken. there was an honest disagreement of opinion. the army felt that what it was doing. and it had a number -- of people whom i very much respect thought they were doing the right thing. i can assure you that the process that we're now presenting is full and open competition. >> but you made a judgment call that let the army proceed with it. >> well, we don't -- we can't -- it's not a question of us allowing them to proceed. you know, we make a recommendation. we give them our view. but they're the executive agent. they need to make -- >> so it's not binding on the army? >> no. but i will tell you that what has come up -- >> could you have told the army not to proceed? do you have that authority? >> not really. but i will tell you -- >> let me interrupt here just for clarification. and i think the world of your organization in terms of trying to provide some orde

whine of the recommendations of the gao as to how that specifically authorized by congress to pay the difference also released we can maintain the rear at with current exposure. >> would that require a further appropriation to subsidize? >> it would then allow us to start paying down our debt. of the way we are structured we cannot pay down the 18.8 billion. we have no prospects of paying it down. any time we have flood disasters that exceed our intake for the premium that number grows in the interest payments back to the treasury grow because we're not structure directionally adjust our rates high enough to take that into account. >> the reason you can price for rescues because statutory and through rule you don't feel you have the ability to do that? is a combination of the policies of purchaser cannot afford that? all of the above? >> i king gave you a detailed report by users subsidize did palestine but if you listen to the questions we are asked if we find the risk is challenge than we say what is the impact to homeowners who now have escrow billing $100 per month were 1200 per y

we're at the stage right now where we split up the responsibilities with gao. it's a large task and we, frankly, didn't have jurisdiction over some of the entities like fannie and freddie because they're not t.a.r.p. recipients, but gao, of course, does. we split up the different tasks of this. i talked to my chief of audits the other day, and we're in the process of exchanging draft reports with gao. i don't think we have an estimated release date, but we're in the process of getting there hopefully within the next couple of months we'll be able to release that report. >> appreciate that. i thank you for doing that. how many fed dollars went to assist distressed companies? >> i don't -- we reported on this number back in this past july, and i anticipate we're going to be doing a catch-up on that on how much money not just that came from treasury and the t.a.r.p., but overall in the financial system. what the level of support was. back in july it was about $3 trillion all in for the various programs that support the financial industry. i recently saw an estimat

the deputy comptroller at the department of defense, we have one member of congress, a high ranking gao official. we have another member who was at the department of defense, national security, and number three at the state department. we take our jobs very seriously. we have never seen any partisanship. i want to say that your company, in the end, find a way to cooperate with us, but sometimes we feel like we take you clicking -- kicking and driving to the altar -- dragging to the altar. we rarely have to deal with attorneys in other offices, but we often have to deal with attorneys in your operation. you have been helpful and had people come down, and we appreciate that, but on a scale of 1- 10, you are somewhere in the middle in terms of other contractors. i fully, and the commission fully respects your 29 and a half years of service in the military. i have traveled to iraq more times than i can count because i get a fix from being in the presence of the people from -- people like you. we all point out that contractors are an essential part of this operation. we could not do without

hawkins testimony before this committee, we are open to very full auditing of those facilities by the gao including with appropriate delay the names of all the firms to which we made loans. so we understand the importance of transparency and i promise you that we will continue to to do that. >> and you've announced closing dates for at least one of the facilities march 31st and june 30. their potential specific impacts that we could see from closing those facilities? could you elaborate on whether there may be specific impacts in doing that. >> mr. chairman, these fa slties were create under the 133 emergency authority because conditions were unusual the mar ketsd were highly disrupted, highly dysfunctional in substantial part because of our intervention those markets are now working quite normally so no longer justification for holding those facility, open. and as i mentioned we had closed most of them as of february 1est and so far we have seen no adverse circumstances. in the case of the asset-backed securities market which is the one remaining area where we are providing support, whil

we have a high ranking gao official who was project manager and part of the senior executive order. we have another member who is a dod national security and a number three state department. and we have a contract law professor. we take our joffrey sincerely. we have not ever seen any partisanship. and i want to say that your company in the end finds a way to cooperate with us. but sometimes we feel like we take you kicking and dragging to the altar. that's just our opinion. we rarely have to deal with an attorney in another office, but we have to more than often than do not deal with an attorney in your operations. as if that's the only way we can communicate with you. you have been very helpful and cooperative in having our people come down and we appreciate that. but on a scale of one to 10, you are somewhere in the middle of the cooperation compared to some of the other contract is. my point in asking you to start in the third page of your document is we wanted to get inside the meat of your point. i fully am the commission fully respects your 29.5 years of service to the milita

gao does. we split this up. but shwe are in the process of trading draft. i do not think we have an estimated release date. we are in the process of getting there the next couple of months. let's i think it is very important. thank you for doing that. how many fed dollars exists -- assisted distressed companies? >> we reported on this number back in july. i anticipate that we will do a cat up on that, on how much money that is the treasury but overall in the financial system. in july, it was about $3 trillion all in for the various programs to support the financial industry. i recently saw an estimate. i do not want -- it estimated the number still at around $3 trillion. we are going to go revisit the previous reports in our quarterly report and get an update on where that number is. we will includeff breakdowns from the federal reserve, treasury and other entities that have provided support. >> when will that report be available? >> part of our july quarterly report. but not until july. what is your best guess the degree to which the fed dollars recoup? >>

that was not a contract my group had and in 2005 caci submitted in response to a gao report. >> you have knowledge of whether is right or wrong or don't have knowledge? >> i don't have knowledge. >> i think he is right and was an organizational conflict of interest. >> i think there will -- sorry. one other thing about the disclosure forms filed. when i file my financial disclosure form, when everybody on this panel files there not only in their current jobs, i think we may all almost all had to file in our previous federal jobs and for that matter when the first panel which had a top current government contracting official and i asked about whether they did. we all while hours publicly and i can tell you as general counsel of the house met reporters pour over these reports and follow any leads. now, reporters can do that for a top caci officials to file such disclose statements, can they? >> they cannot. >> right they cannot so we're really missing some safeguards here for people who are closely associated with inherently government work in your category. let's go to aecom. by the way,

she has worked at the gao and cbo as well as the omb and then mark for responsible federal budget is also a mandatory spending expert. and numbers which is and i should say we are fortunate that the members of congress on the commission have some of the most extraordinary talented people in the field and we will be taking phone advantage of that fact going forward. we are determined to build a nonpartisan bipartisan staff has no majority, minority and we look forward to working with you to carry out the ideas and tackle problems we've heard about from the meeting yesterday >> we have a grand total of three. >> if you did america is bear bones this commission is in their bones. this is about eight. and that is what makes it a conflict we have some hearings around the united states. i tell you we don't have a scratch as the old guy says to do it. >> if you will give us some opportunities that we have to look at so we don't have to physically all go some place we can figure that out. >> you are right it is about education that everywhere you go in the united states you hear the people s

-mexico border is now turned out to be in the assessment of the gao an abysmal failure. so that's why senator kyl and i an agreement with everyone present agency in the state of arizona have done what secretary napolitano asked for when she was governor of the state of arizona to send the national guard to the border until we are sure that we have some kind of control over the border. look, if you've got 241,000 people apprehended, just in the two sunset there of arizona, if you have intercepted a 1.3 million pounds of marijuana and you can cite the statistics as to how much is apprehended and how many are apprehended and how much gets away, does that not indicate that our border is not under control? >> senator mccain, the threats that we face and not areas are taken seriously. we have deployed oath in march of 09 and are preparing to deploy additional resources to the border. i think -- >> and those resources are? >> the threat is appreciated. the national guard is one option that's under consideration i suspect that the secretary and the will be making that decision i

the gao criticized that policy in november 1999. governor gram lick proposed that there should be examinations of consumer finance lenders, which would have covered, depending on the calculation, anywhere between another 12% to 18% of the subprime originations. it wouldn't have covered everyone by any extent. there was an august 2000 memo from dolores smith and glen loney of your staff, called compliance inspections of non-bank subsidiaries, of non-bank holding companies suggesting a pilot program. in 2004, the gao weighed in again, urging action, given the significant amount of subprime lending among holding company subsidiaries, but again, no action, no willingness to go in and examine a non-bank sub suddenry, even though after your tenure in 2007, the federal reserve with the ftc and state regulators did launch a pilot and in 2009 began those examinations. why weren't you willing to go in and at least examine these institutions? >> well, first of all, let me just say with respect to 2009, regulation evolves over the years and i t

but gao did some nice work on the electronic structures, not the consumer side, but the bankside and the federal reserve site. when we didn't see interruptio interruptions. and for all the tear and consequences in new york city, that those wires and those systems were preserved and continued to function. there is a lot of integrity, a lot of places in the system that need to be protected. i want to turn now to the floor, and have a little bit dialogue and open things up for questions. either individual or to the true. don't feel obligated to respond to every question. but let's start over here. if you could wait for the microphone and identifiers of. >> tom brown. thank you for putting on a wonderful conference. i have a question picking up on a thread that you introduced, bob. i do a fair amount of work with payment companies, some in a non-banking. and as you and i have discussed in other contexts, the pulsing blueprint identifies this sort of loophole in the regulatory structure for the payment businesses of the night stays between the bank provided and non-bank providers. it seem

the gao criticized that policy in november 1999. governor gram lick proposed that there should be examinations of consumer finance lenders, which would have covered, depending on the calculation, anywhere between another 12% to 18% of the subprime originations. it wouldn't have covered everyone by any extent. there was an august 2000 memo from dolores smith and glen loney of your staff, called compliance inspections of non-bank subsidiaries, of non-bank holding companies suggesting a pilot program. in 2004, the gao weighed in again, urging action, given the significant amount of subprime lending among holding company subsidiaries, but again, no action, no willingness to go in and examine a non-bank sub suddenry, even though after your tenure in 2007, the federal reserve with the ftc and state regulators did launch a pilot and in 2009 began those examinations. why weren't you willing to go in and at least examine these institutions? >> well, first of all, let me just say with respect to 2009, regulation evolves over the years and i t

but gao did some nice work on the electronic structures, not the consumer side, but the bankside and the federal reserve site. when we didn't see interruptio interruptions. and for all the tear and consequences in new york city, that those wires and those systems were preserved and continued to function. there is a lot of integrity, a lot of places in the system that need to be protected. i want to turn now to the floor, and have a little bit dialogue and open things up for questions. either individual or to the true. don't feel obligated to respond to every question. but let's start over here. if you could wait for the microphone and identifiers of. >> tom brown. thank you for putting on a wonderful conference. i have a question picking up on a thread that you introduced, bob. i do a fair amount of work with payment companies, some in a non-banking. and as you and i have discussed in other contexts, the pulsing blueprint identifies this sort of loophole in the regulatory structure for the payment businesses of the night stays between the bank provided and non-bank providers. it seem

the gao criticized that policy in november 1999. governor ed gramlich proposed that they should be examination of consumer finance lenders, which would have covered depending on the calculation anywhere between another 12 to 18% of the subprime origination to cut would have covered everyone by any extent. there wasn't august 2000 memo from dolores smith and glenn loney, i think of your staff, called compliance of non-bank subsidiaries the bank holding companies suggesting a pilot program. in 2004 the gao weighed in again urgent action given quote a significant amount of subprime lending among holding companies subsidiaries year but again, no action. no willingness to go in and examine a non-bank subsidiaries, even though after your tenure, finally in 2007 with the federal reserve and ftc and lds and state regulators did launch a pilot. and the 2009 begin those examinations. why would you want to go in and at least examine these institutions speak as well, first of all let me say with respect to 2009, supervision and regulation evolv

in 2006 gao submitted completed returns with errors secretly with several overlooked, and deductions.ackson hewitt requires their preparers to take a five part competency test. the company said that they give mandatory ethics, fraud, with for terrorists needing to complete 110 hours of class worked in the continuing education, pointing out that privacy is also an issue for do- it-yourself tax preparers. seattle, you do not do your own taxes. tell us why. caller: my father used to help me with my taxes but he passed away a few years ago. i tried to do it myself and they send me a letter saying i was not doing a right. the lady on the phone asked if i should do it for her, so i said ok. anyways, i cheated myself. i had that i owed money and she had that i had $800 coming back to me. i would rather have someone else do it for me. it is pretty complicated. i figured i would be much better off going to someplace that prepared it for me. host: honolulu, the morning. caller: good morning, c-span. thanks for all of you folks do up there in washington, d.c.. it is so simple to add it into the

i will just finish that thought i have spent time navajo and at one point requesting a study of the gao issues shutting down the air-traffic control system but it did some nice work on the electronic structure not on the consumer side but the bank side where for all of the terror and consequences in new york city those wires and systems were preserved and continue to function there is a lot of integrity that needs to be protected. are one to turn to the floor to have a little bit of dialogue as the individual or group but do not feel obligated to respond to every question. >> thom brown. thank you for putting on a wonderful conference broker question picking up on the thread that bob introduced i do a fair amount of work with various payment systems and as we have discussed another context the paulson blueprint identify the loophole in the regulatory structure of the payments basis between big providers and nonbank providers and it seems that has been lost in the discussion never good to reformist mayor distracted by discussions of cfpaduc anything that will address the oddity of tellin

individuals with disabilities, but although most polling places now have accessible voting machines, the gaofound that half of "accessible voting machines" may pose problems to many with disabilities, as such as those in wheelchairs. what action has the civil rights division taken to address this problem? >> i am familiar with that report, and we are actively working jurisdiction by jurisdiction. because of the volume of precincts, and i know in my own state of maryland we had a number of precincts that had accessibility issues, so we are feverishly working to make sure, not simply that the facilities are physically accessible, but then workingq on issues involvig people with vision impairment. we have read more about that and heard more about that recently. that is certainly a broad part of our overall agenda of ensuring that everybody who is eligible to vote can do so. >> thank you. that is so important. if i had known i had two rounds, i would not have come down so hard on the ranking member who had an important armed services committee hearing, and i apologize for that. that was uncalled

the program is unfair to taxpayers according to the gao and the cbo they say the t.a.r.p $50 billion program includes 100% of the tax payer investment although i know that nine of the majority memo under this hearing of the subchapter who will absorber the losses curiously the word taxpayer is never mentioned. a program hurts the economy and fails to recognize the only foreclosure mitigation plan is a good job with a steady paycheck and a bright future unfortunately over 7 billion of the jobs have been lost investment capital remains on the sidelines but that is hampering economic recovery surrounding a sea of debt to to put a plan to put the nation on the road to fiscal sanity that would create jobs and thus have the effective foreclosure mitigation for the nation. i yield back the balance of my time. >> i yield myself 302nd. >> tell based talking about the president and nancy pelosi since every single bail-out began to request president bush although they are being continued by president obama? >> it is not the president continue the policies? >> i just said continued by a bomb tha

but although most polling places now have accessible voting machines that gao recently found that halfmachines may pose problems too many with disabilities such as those in wheelchairs. what actions has the civil rights division taken to address this problem? >> i'm familiar with that report and we are actively working jurisdiction by jurisdiction. it is because of the volume of the precincts and i know in my own state of maryland we had a number of precincts that were -- have accessibility issues so we are feverishly working to make sure not simply that the facilities are physically accessible but then working in issues involving some people in in vision impairment and we've read more about that or heard more about that recently bought there is a broad part of an overall agenda ensuring everyone eligible to vote can do so. >> that is so important and thank you mr. chairman. if i had known i would have to rounds i wouldn't have come down so hard on the ranking member who had an important armed services committee hearing and i apologize for that. that was uncalled for. >> mr. chairman i

she has worked at the gao and cbo as well as the omb and then mark for responsible federal budget isandatory spending expert. and numbers which is and i should say we are fortunate that the members of congress on the commission have some of the most extraordinary talented people in the field and we will be taking phone advantage of that fact going forward. we are determined to build a nonpartisan bipartisan staff has no majority, minority and we look forward to working with you to carry out the ideas and tackle problems we've heard about from the meeting yesterday >> we have a grand total of three. >> if you did america is bear bones this commission is in their bones. this is about eight. and that is what makes it a conflict we have some hearings around the united states. i tell you we don't have a scratch as the old guy says to do it. >> if you will give us some opportunities that we have to look at so we don't have to physically all go some place we can figure that out. >> you are right it is about education that everywhere you go in the united states you hear the people say someth

individuals with disabilities, but although most polling places now have accessible voting machines, the gao recently found that half of "accessible voting machines" may pose problems to many with disabilities, as such as those in wheelchairs. what action has the civil rights division taken to address this problem? >> i am familiar with that report, and we are actively working jurisdiction by jurisdiction. because of the volume of precincts, and i know in my own state of maryland we had a number of precincts that had accessibility issues, so we are feverishly working to make sure, not simply that the facilities are physically accessible, but then workingq on issues involvig people with vision impairment. we have read more about that and heard more about that recently. that is certainly a broad part of our overall agenda of ensuring that everybody who is eligible to vote can do so. >> thank you. that is so important. if i had known i had two rounds, i would not have come down so hard on the ranking member who had an important armed services committee hearing, and i apologize for that. that wa

transportation infrastructure projects in the recovery act has now been obligated to more than 18 gao's 500 projects. further of the $30 billion provision of the highway transit and waste water infrastructure projects that of the focus of today's hearing how 80 percent of available funding has been put out to bid. work has begun more than 12,500 projects totaling $26.7 billion. these expenditures have created or sustain it nearly 350,000 jobs. these are two statutes which humans and the work under way producing the new and rehabilitated it infrastructure that will ensure our future mobility. mr. chairman many of us forget that when we enacted the stimulus we face economic crisis of unprecedented proportions. we just have to provide $700 billion in federal funding to keep our entire financial system from melting down, we were uncertain whether even the extraordinary sum would be adequate. against that backdrop mr. chairman wow the current and implement rate of 9.7% is unacceptably high and i know that unemployment among minorities is still higher with employment -- unemployment among afr